Dan Walters

While much of the nation is enjoying a vigorous economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, California is falling behind with scant job growth.

California is a liberal state where politicians enact laws and regulations aimed at improving Californians' lives, but that also makes them susceptible to influence.

California faces a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that could last for years. Rather than treat it as a serious fiscal crisis, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders are using gimmicks to close the gap.

California's public schools depend on state aid for the lion's share of their operational income. Two trends – declining enrollment and high absenteeism – are creating financial headaches.

In recent decades, the logistics industry has flourished in Southern California, but there's a backlash over the industry's low wages and the pollution it creates.

California has typically had U.S. senators with different personalities, one being flashy and the other quietly diligent. That phenomenon may be ending when two journeyman politicians, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, occupy the state's two Senate seats.

A long-running feud between Orange County's elected schools superintendent and its school board exemplifies how public education has become a major venue for culture war clashes.

Five years into his governorship, fewer than half of Californian adults approve of Gavin Newsom's performance. Still, a second recall drive is doomed for failure.

Changes to California's primary election system were meant to be an improvement but have instead made the elections boring, which in turn has reduced voter participation.

California has the nation's largest population of homeless people and has spent billions of dollars to lower the number yet it keeps growing.